By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
President of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians, Dr. Alverston Bailey (centre), poses with four of the five physicians who made history by being named the first fellows of the regional body. From left are: Althea Bailey, who represented absentee awardee, Dr. Kamala Dickson; Dr. Michael Hoyos of Barbados; Dr. Winsome Segree-Mackay of Jamaica, Dr. Sonia Roache-Barker of Trinidad and Tobago and Dr. Matthew Beaubrun of Jamaica. They were honoured in September at the CCFP's Second Pan-Caribbean Conference, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. - Contributed
FOR MORE than three decades, local physicians, Drs. Matthew Beaubrun, Winsome Segree-Mac-Kay and Kamala Dickson remained dedicated to the practice of family medicine.
Just over a month ago, they and two other doctors were given a public 'thank you' when they were honoured by the Caribbean College of Family Physicians (CCFP).
Dr. Michael Hoyos of Barbados and CCFP board member, Dr. Sonia Roache-Barker of Trinidad and Tobago were also lauded for having proven 'family' means everything.
The five are the first physicians to be appointed fellows of the college.
HEART WARMING
It was a move which warmed their hearts because the five helped to establish the regional college in 1968 and three are former presidents of the CCFP.
"I am very pleased with the award," Dr. Beaubrun told The Gleaner last month. "I am also very happy to see young people taking up the mantle. I have to give a special degree of praise to the first president, Dr. Winsome Segree, for it was she who laid the foundation," said Dr. Beaubrun, a former ambassador who began practising medicine in 1962. He is now in private practice but has served several organisations, including the Medical Appeals Tribunal, the Commonwealth Medical Association and the Medical Association of Jamaica.
Dr. Segree-MacKay, researcher and director of the University of the West Indies' (UWI) Emergency Medical Technician training programme and the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, is a key player in the Health Promotion Resource Centre and in departmental programmes in primary health care. She played a fundamental role in the CCFP's development and expansion and now edits its journal.
CREDITED TEAM
She credited team work for her achievement.
"I alone could not have done this. We work as a team. My motto is TEAM - together everyone achieves more. I feel very honoured and very humble but it's all of us who did it," said Dr. Segree-MacKay last month.
She and Dr. Dickson also collaborated to start the UWI's post-graduate medicine programme and co-wrote the original curriculum.
"The CCFP is very proud of her achievements and salutes her," the college said of Dr. Dickson, who also spent 31 years at UWI's Health Centre.
Dr. Dickson has worked closely with the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine and was an honorary lecturer for years after gaining her Master's in Public Health from the Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
Dr. Dickson has fought to define the position of the family doctor in Caribbean health management systems.
"In this, she has given sterling service both at the organisational level and in that matter of the formal post-graduate education of family doctors in the region," the college said in a citation during the CCFP's second Pan-Carib-bean Conference, held at the Jamaica Pegasus, September 25 to 28, 2003. The conference was held under the theme 'Challenges and Opportunities in Family Medicine'.
